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During the recent intensive debate on education, when some
people were making a noise about 'Roman Catholic schools and
Protestant schools' a contributor to a discussion on BBC Radio
Ulster's 'Talkback' programme rang to make a very important
point.
The man corrected what he felt was an incorrect impression
given by the discussion, pointing out that there are "no
Protestant schools in Northern Ireland today".
The man stressed that there were Roman Catholic schools,
Irish language schools, and integrated schools, but no Protestant
schools.
The contributor was almost completely correct. There are
a few Protestant schools. Two of them are primary schools
under Church of Ireland management, and there are a number
of Christian schools run by the Free Presbyterian Church of
Ulster.
These are only a handful of all the schools in Northern Ireland,
and apart from this point, the contributor to the debate got
it right in his assertion.
Had the Orange Order been successful in its vociferous and
high profile campaign in 1926, the main Protestant churches
would have retained control of at least half the primary schools
in Northern Ireland.
But the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches
yielded to the pressure by the Northern Ireland Government
and handed over control of its schools to the State.
The carrot produced by the Government was that the Protestant
churches would retain a strong position on the management
boards and education committees, and their clerical and lay
representatives would have a big say in appointments and curriculum.
That was largely the position for decades, but in recent
times there have been moves to reduce the Protestant representation
on State school management committees, and to secularise the
State sector.
Ironically, England, long regarded as a much less religiously
inclined country, has a large proportion of Faith schools,
at least half of them Church of England schools.
And in the Republic of Ireland, Protestant parents make big
sacrifices to send their children to schools under the management
of Protestant Churches, mainly the Church of Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, the intention in the early 1920s, just
following the establishment of the new State, the intention
of the Government was to reduce sectarianism by creating an
educational environment in which most children were educated
in State schools.
The Roman Catholic Church refused to endorse such an arrangement
and held on to control of its own schools. In the days of
the Northern Ireland Government the grants made to the Roman
Catholic sector, both for building and operation of schools
were the most generous in the United Kingdom - 65 per cent
in Northern Ireland, when the grant in the rest of the UK
was 50 per cent.
Nowadays the Roman Catholic sector is responsible for half
the pupils in the Province, retaining full control of its
schools. Protestant children, along with Muslims, Hindus,
non-religious and other denominations attend State schools.
There are hardly any Protestant schools in existence in Northern
Ireland. In the interests of accuracy and the truth, it would
be a big contribution if commentators and observers dropped
the word 'Protestant' and referred correctly to 'State' schools.
Sadly, as far as the Orange Order is concerned, and many
parents, Protestant schools disappeared almost completely
from the Northern Ireland education scene in the mid-1920s.
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